They
spring up from themselves!
(J.
C. Ryle, "Repentance")
"From birth their hearts are set on nothing but evil."
Genesis 8:21
"I have been evil from the day I was born; from the
time I was conceived, I have been sinful." Psalm 51:5
We are all born in sin.
We naturally love sin.
We take to sin, as soon as we can act and think--
just as the bird takes to flying, and the fish takes
to swimming. There never was a child who required
schooling or education in order to learn . . .
deceitfulness,
selfishness,
passion,
self-will,
gluttony,
pride, and
foolishness.
These things are not picked up from bad companions, or
gradually learned by a long course of tedious instruction.
They spring up from themselves! The
seeds of them
are evidently the natural product of the heart. The aptitude
of all children to these evil things is an unanswerable proof
of the corruption and fall of man.